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Week 8 MLB Review
Who’s in first?
AL East: Red Sox (30-18)
AL Central: Tigers (35-15)
AL West: Rangers (26-24)
NL East: Mets (30-19)
NL Central: Cardinals (32-18)
NL West: Diamondbacks (29-20)
Who’s in last?
AL East: Devil Rays (21-30)
AL Central: Royals (11-37)
AL West: Angels (21-29)
NL East: Marlins (15-33)
NL Central: Pirates (16-34)
NL West: Rockies (26-24)
Wild one at Wrigley: There’s one every season, right? At least it seems that way to me.
Saturday’s 11-inning affair at Wrigley, in which the Braves came away with a 13-12 win, certainly qualifies as one of the wildest games this season. Atlanta set a record with eight homers in the game, two each by Edgar Renteria and Adam LaRoche, blew a 4-run lead in the ninth, then pushed a run across in the 11th to end the 25-run contest.
Marcus Giles, Ryan Langerhans, Andruw Jones and Brayan Peña connected on the other four dingers by the Braves.
He Cubs actually led 4-1 after the first inning thanks to a pair of 2-run singles by Jacques Jones and Neifi Perez. But LaRoche hit his first homer of the game to lead off the top of the second, Langerhans followed with his blast an out later, and Giles connected for a 3-run shot following a Todd Pratt single and John Smoltz double to give the lead back to Atlanta, 6-4, and chase Chicago rookie Jay Kuk Ryu who was making his first start in the majors.
Renteria and LaRoche sandwiched their second homers of the game in the sixth around Jones’ blast, and the Braves seemed in control at 11-5.
Ahead 12-8 going into the ninth, a double by Ronny Cedeño and 2-run triple by Perez fired the Cubs rally and sent the game to extra frames with a 12-12 deadlock. Giles stroked a single in the top of the 11th to plate Langerhans with the winner.
It was the most home runs the Braves have ever hit, and the most ever surrendered by the Cubs.
This week's dogs: Even though they didn’t have the worst record of the week, they came close. The Houston Astros were just an inning away from going 1-6 on the week before they pulled out a 5-4, 10-inning win Sunday against the Pirates. Down 4-0 entering the ninth on Sunday, Houston rallied with a 4-spot in that frame and added the game winner in the 10th to pull it out and avoid the sweep in Pittsburgh and give them a 2-5 record on the slate.
The Astros opened the week with a strong 10-3 win over the Nationals in Washington. But after that game and before the ninth inning on Sunday, they were dog awful with five straight losses, including an 18-inning defeat to Pittsburgh on Saturday night in which they blew a couple of leads thanks to some shoddy pitching and shoddy fielding.
In a 62-inning stretch from Tuesday night until the ninth inning on Sunday, the Astros scored just 19 runs. Lance Berkman, arguably the club’s top hitter, missed a few games with what has been diagnosed as a hyperextension in his right knee. But Berkman’s absence from the lineup really was no excuse for some of the runners left on base, 19 alone in Saturday’s marathon loss.
The poor showing on the week dropped the Astros all the way into fourth place in the NL Central and left them just a game above .500 on the season.
How's that, tacomax
Injury News: Coming off the DL recently were Boston outfielder Coco Crisp, San Diego catcher Rob Bowen, Atlanta left-hander Horacio Ramirez, St. Louis right-hander Sydney Ponson, Boston left-hander David Wells, Cincinnati left-hander Kent Mercker, Washington catcher Brian Schneider, Baltimore second baseman Brian Roberts, Cincinnati outfielder Cody Ross, Colorado right-hander Sun-Woo Kim, New York Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield, Boston right-hander David Riske and Florida outfielder Jeremy Hermida.
Heading to the DL in the last week were Wily Mo Peña (BOS-wrist), Mike Timlin (BOS-shoulder), Luis A. Gonzalez (COL-wrist), Casey Fossum (TAM-groin), Brian McCann (ATL-ankle), Jose Guillen (WAS-hamstring), Mike Maroth (DET-elbow), Danny Ardoin (COL-knee), Felix Rodriguez (WAS-shoulder), Lenny DiNardo (BOS-neck), Cole Hamels (PHL-shoulder), Shannon Stewart (MIN-), Shawn Chacon (NYY-left leg), Zach Day (WAS-shoulder), Sergio Mitre (FLA-shoulder), Tanyon Sturtze (NYY-shoulder) and Tim Worrell (SFG-neck).
A few other transactions last week included right-hander Seth Etherton being traded from the Padres to the Royals for cash and a player to be named, infielder-outfielder Tony Womack being called up to the Cubs from their Triple-A team, right-hander Esteban Yan being designated for assignment by the Angels, Edgardo Alfonzo being signed by the Blue Jays, left-hander Dave Williams being traded from the Reds to the Mets for pitcher Robert Manuel, and the Mets and Diamondbacks swapping a pair of veteran right-handers with Jorge Julio moving to Arizona and Orland Hernandez heading to New York.
Fantasy Studs & Duds: Have to start this list off with Pittsburgh outfielder Jason Bay who was on fire last week with a 6-game home run streak. Bay slammed seven homers in all for the week with 15 RBI and 11 runs scored to go with a .500 batting average (13-for-26).
The week also saw new hitters emerge on top of their respective league’s batting average charts as New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter (.352) took over the lead in the AL and Washington second baseman Jose Vidro (.343) and Florida third baseman Miguel Cabrera (.343) share the lead in the NL. Jeter hit .360 for the week (9-for-25) with six runs scored. Vidro hit .318 (7-for-22) with a homer and five RBI while Cabrera batted .500 (9-for-18) with a .560 OB%, 2 HR and 8 RBI.
Three pitchers reached the 8-win mark last week. Arizona’s Brandon Webb picked up his eighth dubya with seven shutout innings in Cincinnati on Friday. Webb also leads the NL with a 2.18 ERA. New York Mets veteran Tom Glavine earned his eighth win Saturday in Florida. Boston veteran Curt Schilling also won his eighth Saturday at home against the Devil Rays. Schilling won #7 earlier in the week at Fenway when the Red Sox bopped the Yankees, 9-5.
Quote(s) of the Week: "It's a great honor. It's a wonderful honor. Hank Aaron to me is the home run king, and I won't disrespect that ever. Babe Ruth has 714 home runs, but Hank has 755. I have a lot of respect for Babe Ruth, and I have a lot of respect for what he's done for the game of baseball, but I have to give the head up to Hank Aaron because he is the home run king." - - - San Francisco’s Barry Bonds after connecting for his 715th career homer Sunday to pass Babe Ruth for #2 on the all-time list.
“Bonds took so long to go from 713 to 715 -- 20 games -- that most of the national media tracking his pursuit had left. The press box in San Francisco was hardly full…” - - - ESPN.com writer John Shea.
"Crazy day at Wrigley, that's the only way I can describe it." - - - Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said after the Braves beat the Cubs 13-12 in 11 innings on Saturday.
On Deck: A rematch of the past two NLCS takes place early in the week in St. Louis as the Cardinals host the Astros in what will be a huge test for a recently sinking Houston club. The Cards send Jason Marquis, Chris Carpenter and Jeff Suppan to the hill against Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettitte and Taylor Buchholz for the ‘Stros.
The Detroit Tigers are tested with a 4-game series against the New York Yankees in Motown beginning Monday. Mike Mussina against Nate Robertson on Wednesday looks to be the biggest matchup of starting pitchers.
The Chicago White Sox travel to Cleveland to take on the Indians in what should be a big series for the two AL Central rivals currently chasing the Tigers. The 4-game matchup includes a nice lefty-on-lefty contest Tuesday with Mark Buehrle on the mound for the Pale Hose and CC Sabathia the starter for the Tribe.
The Tigers’ test continues next weekend with the Red Sox coming to Detroit. The series opens on Friday with Curt Schilling the scheduled starter for Boston and Kenny Rogers going for Detroit.
Cubs and Cardinals fans are looking forward to next weekend as that rivalry continues in St. Louis. Saturday’s matchup of Kerry Wood versus Mark Mulder looks very intriguing.
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Originally Posted by Willie Bee
